China dismissed allegations made by the US that it intercepted highly classified internet traffic earlier this year.
Today, China dismissed allegations made by the US that it intercepted highly classified internet traffic early this year. Said traffic including several emails sent and received by US military websites.
According to a yearly security report received by the US congress last Wednesday, a Chinese government-owned telecoms company gained access to 15 percent of internet traffic worldwide, and with it several highly classified emails between the US army and NASA, last April for 18 whole minutes.
The report cautioned that the captured traffic could give China the opportunity for severely malicious behavior. China Telecom, the aforementioned Chinese company denied today that they hijacked global internet traffic.
Experts on online security said this incident may very well be “one of the biggest hijacks” in the history of the World Wide Web in terms of intercepting classified information.
US-China relations has always been tense in matters involving the internet. The two countries are the two topmost countries when it came to number of internet users.
Earlier, US tech company Google wanted to stop making restrictions on search results for its Chinese search engine after a supposedly government-sponsored sophisticated cyber attack on Google. This led China to castigate the American government for stating “groundless accusations” regarding the country’s supposed restrictions on freedom online.
According to the US report, 15 percent of internet traffic globally passed through Chinese servers in April, raising concerns among US government agencies that China now had access to highly sensitive correspondence. The routing of internet traffic started at IDC China, a small ISP in China, before it was rerouted through China Telecom.
China Denies Internet Hijacking Accusations
Related China Hijacking Internet Traffic Articles:
- China Telecom Denies U.S. Government Report That It Hijacked Web Traffic [Voices] (voices.allthingsd.com)
- China rejects U.S. web hijack allegations (canada.com)
- China denies ‘hijacking’ internet traffic (guardian.co.uk)
